Yester History 2

The Building of Yester House 1670 - 1878

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	Lord Tweeddale also found time to cultivate academic and scientific pursuits. Described by John Evelyn as 'a learned and knowing nobleman,' he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1664 and subsequently achieved a considerable reputation as a planter and improver. He also possessed a fine library, housed mainly at Pinkie, which contained not only a wide selection of books dealing with horticulture, but also a number of standard architectural treatises. Whatever merits the early house of Yester may have had, Lord Tweeddale evidently began to consider the possibility of rebuilding it soon after the Restoration. He probably caught the itch for building from political associates such as Rothes, Kincardine and Lauderdale, and it is not surprising to find that he turned first for architectural advice to Lauderdale's protege Sir William Bruce of Balcaskie. Bruce was no more than a minor figure in Tweeddale's circle, but the two men were personally acquainted, and this acquaintanceship must have deepened during 1670, when Tweeddale was negotiating for the purchase of Bruce's Edinburgh house, which he proposed to enlarge for his own occupation. It is possible that Bruce was asked to superintend these alterations, which are referred to in some detail in a letter of September 1670 written to the Earl by a close mutual friend, Sir Robert Moray, the Lord Justice Clerk. In this letter, which provides the only positive evidence of Lord Tweeddale's intentions regarding Yester at this period, Moray writes: 'Sir W. Bruce and I are to hold a consultation about your new house at Yester'. Nothing further is heard of this proposal, however, and by the following year the Earl had evidently decided not to pull down the old house for the time being, but to improve the place by remodelling some of the principal apartments and laying out a park. During 1671 marble chimney-pieces with... 'two handsom iron chimneys with all that belongs to them, shoffel and toings and andirons such as ar in fashone' ...were obtained by Lord Yester (afterwards 2nd Marquess of Tweeddale) in London, and installed in the upper dining-room and drawing-room. The Earl also asked his son to purchase paintings for use as overmantels and overdoors, instructing him that... 'thes may be all ether landskips or ruins with smal figures or storys with lager figurs as can be best had ... I think the burning of London wold doe weal for one.' Lord Yester's first-hand knowledge of current improvements in London was also harnessed towards the planning of the new park. In September 1671 the Earl informed his son... 'my parke will be clossed within this month and I am desinging som long walks in it, if you pleas to send me the breadth of the walks in St James Park, both the largest as that be the Pell Mel, and that we walked in beyond the cannal, and also of the narower, it will help me much.' Three weeks later he was able to report that he was laying out a walk 900 paces in length and 50 feet broad, and proposed during the following year to add flanking walks of lesser breadth, the trees in all three walks to be planted at 25 feet intervals.